Free School News

At a Labour Party conference fringe event this week, Angela Rayner said that she would “turn her back” on Michael Gove’s education reforms. While this rhetoric will certainly play well with her party’s membership, I want a lot more detail on how she would actually implement changes.

Free Schools in the media

Provisional phonics results released by the Department for Education indicate that free schools have outperformed other schools for the fourth year running. Overall, 88% of pupils in free schools met the expected standard in phonics, compared to 83% nationally. In addition, Key Stage One results released today also show free schools at the top of the table, with more students reaching the expected standard than other schools across every subject.

NSN News

Mark Lehain, Interim Director, said: “We know that with a rising school population we will need more school places across the country, and free schools are the best means of meeting this need. They are the most cost effective way to create new school places, and are on course to provide more than 400,000 places in areas of need. Without free schools these places would be created by expanding existing schools, placing further pressure on schools that are already at capacity.

Free Schools in the media

Oasis Academy Silvertown has received a grant of £15,000 to purchase musical equipment. They plan to buy electric guitars, violins and a loop pedal, as well as specialist staff to lead lessons. The grant came from Restore the Music UK, who offer grants to deprived schools. The school, which plans to move to its permanent home on North Woolwich Road in 2020, has welcomed the grant. They have faced considerable challenges to their music programme due to planning delays.

Despite knowing that Ofsted would be visiting us during our third year of opening, nothing prepares you for the phone call announcing they will be with you the next day. We had talked about the inspection at length at various SLT meetings, had a battle plan ready and a huge folder of evidence carefully labelled but as soon as we received the call all of that went out of my mind and I just wallowed in blind panic on my own for a few minutes before sanity slowly returned.

Free Schools in the media

Around 200 primary school pupils from the Atam Academy, in Little Heath, gathered for the unveiling of their new building complex, comprising of a two-storey primary school and four-storey secondary school. The brand new building is inspired by the famed Sikh Golden Temple in Amristar. The school is set to open in 2019 and will have 1,300 pupils at full capacity.

I’m writing this during what is, for me at least, one of the most exciting times of the year. I’ve always thought there was something a bit special about the first week back after summer, and in recent years it’s got even better. That’s because each September we get to see the latest wave of free schools open their doors and welcome their students inside.

LAE is a 16-19 free school, which opened in 2012. The school was established to increase the number of students going to university from Newham and the wider area, where typically university entry was low. The school was formed by a partnership of several independent schools, including Brighton College, Caterham School, Eton College, Forest School, Highgate School and University College School, with each school contributing expertise and staff to LAE. LAE still maintains strong links with these schools.